Note: This development is next to Lot D, KL Sentral which is the site for the proposed 60-storey twin residential towers. Developed by MRCB-CapitaLand-Quill Group, it will have 700 luxurious units and will be the tallest residential building in Malaysia. There will be a soft launch in a month or two and an official launch perhaps at the end of the year.

You’ll probably be able to walk into the lobby of St Regis, Grand Hyatt, The Regent and Four Seasons in Kuala Lumpur before 2015.

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The 6-star St Regis brand, part of Starwood Hotels, which is scheduled to open its doors in 2014 will be built on Lot C at KL Sentral. The St. Regis Hotel Kuala Lumpur will feature a minimum 200 hotel rooms while The St. Regis Residences Kuala Lumpur will feature 200 units of freehold upmarket residences.

Starwood is a world leading hotel and leisure company with about 900 properties in 100 countries. Apart from the St Regis brand, Starwood manages other brands such as Le Meridien, Westin, Sheraton, The Luxury Collection and W Hotels.

SOM’s portfolio of over 800 design awards includes the Freedom Tower, which is the redevelopment of the World Trade Centre in New York, and the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest tower, in the United Arab Emirates.

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The Brunei Investment Agency, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds with assets of US$30 billion (RM97.2 billion), has had the green light to develop a 5-star 450-room Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur on Jalan Pinang, next to KL Convention Centre.

It was reported before that world renowned architecture firm Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo (WATG) served as the design architect, together with local firm GDP Architects.

The 40-storey hotel lobby will be located at the top of the building and guests at the lobby will have an impressive 360-degree view of downtown KL.

Earlier plans to open KL’s Grand Hyatt Duta in 1997 was never materialised. Until today, the 52-storey building at the corner of Jalan Sultan Ismail and Jalan Ampang remains partly completed. The Hyatt Group is no longer associated with the project.

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In a related development, Carlson Hotels Asia Pacific, one of the world’s largest privately-owned hotelier, will continue the expansion of its luxury Regent brand into key gateway cities across the region with the opening of The Regent Hotel & Residences Kuala Lumpur in the third quarter of 2011.

* This Regent is not “directly” related to the former The Regent KL (managed by Four Seasons) at Jalan Bukit Bintang. Carlson Hotels had since bought over all of The Regent brand from Four Seasons, however, Four Seasons continues to manage those in Singapore and Taipei.

The Regent Kuala Lumpur joins a growing portfolio of The Regent hotels and resorts worldwide, which includes The Regent Beijing and The Regent Shanghai. The 250-room hotel will also feature an additional 102 exclusive luxury apartments.

The Regent Kuala Lumpur, together with the The Regent Residences, Kuala Lumpur, will occupy a prime city-centre location in the heart of the city’s ‘Golden Triangle’, with breathtaking views of the iconic Petronas Twin Towers and KLCC Park, just 200 metres walking distance away.

Carlson Hotels Worldwide is the world’s ninth largest hotel company ranked by the number of properties worldwide. In Asia Pacific, it is the largest international hotel group operating in India, and has more than 9,000 hotel rooms under management in 11 countries across the region.

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Meanwhile, the contruction of Four Seasons Hotel next to Petronas Towers is currently stalled or has “little movements”.😦

a skyscraper soaring to about 60 storeys has been approved as an extension to the Petronas Twin Towers. It will be located next to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.[Proposed Menara Carigali]

The pricey plot near Suria KLCC will also be the site for the Four Seasons Centre Kuala Lumpur, with its tallest building standing at 70 storeys.[Proposed Four Seasons Centre]

It is touted to be a mixed development comprising a Four Seasons hotel, serviced apartments, luxury condominiums and retail outlets.

KL Sentral is also expected to have a structure towering at about 60 storeys.[Proposed 60-storey KL Sentral]

Another skyscraper to loom over Stadium Merdeka at about 40-storeys tall has also been approved in principle. [Proposed Plaza Merdeka]

It is learnt that this will be part of a privatisation project by the government.

Mahadi said

two other projects with 30-storey structures were waiting for their development orders.[there’re several others 30 to 50-storey skyscrapers proposed]

On talks that a 100-storey skyscraper would be erected near the Matrade centre, bordering Jalan Kuching and Jalan Duta, Mahadi said it was merely an enquiry.

He said no plan or application had been submitted on the so-called project and it was too early to say that Kuala Lumpur would have another building taller than the Twin Towers.

“High-rise projects in Kuala Lumpur have to abide by height guidelines.

“They cannot just follow the fancy of the landowners. These developers have been well informed of the policies in the Kuala Lumpur Structure Plan 2020, draft Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020 and other planning regulations,” he said.

“The height of the buildings is related to land value, the more expensive the land, the higher the buildings but we still need to look into other aspects like road systems and public transport,” Mahadi said.

According to Mahadi, commercial zones are categorised as city centre, district centre and neighbourhood centre, to control development intensity.

The city centre commercial zone has the highest range of permissible plot ratio of up to 1:10. Plot ratio refers to the ratio of land area and floor area.

Superstructures can only be allowed in the city centre commercial zone, which is largely around the KLCC area, as well as other areas designated for the purpose such as KL Sentral and Mid Valley.

“This means that if a developer wants to erect a very tall building in an area outside the city centre commercial zone, it has to make sure there is a large span of green in the surroundings,” Mahadi said.

He advised the public to study the draft KL City Plan 2020 carefully to check on the development intensity proposed for the different areas.

“Some plans have been committed decades ago and the DBKL will have to follow up on these commitments.

“If land owners and residents think that these plans are no longer feasible, or they will suffer losses if the plans proceed, now is the time for them to register their objections,” he said.

The Draft KL City Plan objective is to turn Kuala Lumpur into a world-class city by 2020.

The plan states that “to achieve the vision for a world-class city by 2020, Kuala Lumpur needs an optimum population that supports the city’s role as a leading centre of the new economy”.

Kuala Lumpur is positioned to have a population of 2.2 million, up from the 1.5 million now by 2020, with a population density of 13,805 people per sq km in the city centre, similar to the population density of the busiest areas in Tokyo.

According to town planners interviewed by StarMetro, this demography is inconsistent with the National Physical Plan that advocates sustainable living in the city.

In fact, the physical plan’s objective is to slightly decrease the gross urban density of 29 people per hectare (2,900 people per sq km) to 25 per hectare.

Latest list of projects proposed for KL City and Mont’Kiara coming soon at Malaysia CIty!

He said no plan or application had been submitted on the so-called project and it was too early to say that Kuala Lumpur would have another building taller than the Twin Towers.